Joy in June -- part 2, a Joy list and intentions

It's Monday and I want to keep up with my Joy lists and I wanted to share a few intentions for this month because one of them is that I plan not to blog as frequently or be on my computer as much as I have been. That was an intention for last month, too, but blogging my painting adventures kind of killed that idea. But it's a new month and I'm ready for a fresh start.

Yesterday or perhaps the day before this clematis started blooming. It's in the circle garden in the center of the main part of the yard. When I first planted it a few years ago I managed to cut off the main growing stem when I was trying to get rid of the ugly plastic trellis that came in the pot from the nursery. I felt awful, but the plant didn't seem to mind. It just put out more growth and even did flower that year. Now it always grows up, up, up -- much taller than the support I bought for it -- and is full of flowers. Sometimes when the worst happens, it isn't really the worst. And often we are much more resilient than we think we are.

I guess that's where Joy comes in. Joy is a way of being resilient. Joy is what nurtures us into new growth. Joy is what causes us to bloom. Last June and the months that followed were very difficult for me. I don't want to write about that, but I do want to write about how focusing on Joy helped me to come back to myself. It wasn't easy and it wasn't instantaneous, but it did happen.


"The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination."
                                         --Marion Zimmer Bradley


I want to travel that hopeful road. I want to travel with Joy as my companion. What about you?

• sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee, eating cheese and reading Le Road Trip
• spending time in my studio
• playing with fabric and sewing (finally!)
• spending time with friends and discovering that a new friend really is a kindred spirit
• roses, roses and more roses (and other garden goodness, too)
• finishing my quilt and dreaming of the next one

Eglantyne

This month my plan is to go a little easier on myself. To take things one moment at a time and to enjoy each one. I want to follow my Joy, spending more time reading. I want to work on the sewing projects that have been piling up and cross more things off my project to-do list. I want to spend more time in my studio and I want to repaint it and re-organize it. I want to finally pick a paint color and paint my cabinet, too (choosing colors is proving VERY hard for me to do! For my studio and for the cabinet!). I want to work in the garden and spend some time lying in the shade with the dogs, too. I want to paint and work in my sketchbook and do some writing, too.

Maybe I don't have enough hours in the day to do all I want to do during the month of June, but I'm going to try my best.

Before I dash off to work on another project, I wanted to share my finished quilt. I am SO excited about  it! You might remember how work was stalled back when I sewed into my finger. I also wrote about it here and here, which shows you just how long it's taken me to finish. I started it way back in March. March 2011, that is!

I always like to do something interesting for the back of my quilts. The first time I did it out of necessity; I didn't have a wide enough piece of fabric, so I patched something together instead. I really love the back of this one.

And looking at the back... you can see that I quilted it! For real. Usually I don't do much quilting (if any) on my patchwork blankets. I was just going to do a couple lines in the center of this one, but once I got going, I didn't want to stop. When I finished it, I just wanted to jump around the room dancing! Joy and then some!

What's bringing you Joy today?